His solicitor Correna Platt told the ECHO: “Kevin has always maintained his innocence and has been fighting to prove this ever since he was convicted.

“The decision now lies with the Court of Appeal to decide if the new evidence is sufficient to undermine the safety of the original conviction.”

The murder trial heard how Dookie and Handyside were involved in a dispute with Cole’s co-accused Stephen Mellor and Anthony Kirk, drug dealers who had encroached on the victims’ territory.

In a mass brawl, Handyside was hit on the head with a baseball bat and kicked violently.

Dookie was knifed several times in the chest and abdomen and died two days later in hospital.

Cole, who was 20 at the time, was picked out at an identification parade as being among the attackers.

He admitted being in Preston when a fight “suddenly” erupted but told a court he left the scene and drove straight back to Liverpool.

Cole attempted to appeal in 1999, 2001 and 2003 but was refused leave until last year when the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) referred the murder conviction back to the Court of Appeal.

A two-day hearing has now been listed for June 19 and 20.

The new evidence relates to issues of identification which could serve to undermine the original ID evidence presented at the 1998 trial.

Campaigners point to the fact that out of nine ID parades, Cole was only picked out once.

In 2003, Handyside himself spoke out from his police safe house to claim Cole was not guilty.

Mellor, who was also jailed for life, has also claimed Cole played no part in the murder.

The CCRC said it had decided to refer the conviction to the Court of Appeal “because it considered that new evidence capable of undermining identification evidence heard at the trial raised the real possibility that the court would quash the conviction”.